Manufacturing SMEs (less than 250 employees) are an incredibly interesting sort: They have drive, flexibility, knowhow and a vision for the long term. I know because I have worked with them and they are amazing. Some of the entrepreneurs behind them are some of the more brilliant guys I have ever met, incredible business-savy.
On the other hand, due to their smaller sizes, some expenses become too burdensome for them: they have to face some formidable challenges in terms of assymetry of information, financing their operations, education of the workforce and technological innovation.
The SME is a field where more profesionalized management and services could have a great impact, and there is plenty of opportunities in Spain and all of southern Europe, with a big percentage of SMEs accounting for the total of the production.
If any of you is interested in the Spanish scenario and want to read some interesting material in Spanish, I encourage you to check this paper I read yesterday:
The author reviews the restrictions in SME (called PYMEs in Spanish) development (the best part of the paper for me), and then evaluates the coherence of insitutional support for SME in Spain by different institutions (the goal of the author).
For an entrepreneur-to-be (me!) getting a review on the difficulties of SMEs is a very interesting read. Very interesting! If you know other recommended material, please leave a comment.
May 5th, 2006 at 2:08 am
And on the picture you can see a ‘Matreushka’
May 5th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Rusgirl, you enjoy the Matreushka, don’t you?
It was the first thing that came to my mind when trying to illustrate the concept of small vs big. Actually, the first thing were Sesame Street characters, but they were not as graphic and people might thing of numbers, close vs far, and all those other concepts that Kermit (Gustavo in Spanish) and friends taught us!
May 5th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
hmmmm I am not sure if the no laptop thing will work, though I hope it does. I know that in law school a few of my friends have to take their exams on their laptops - not sure if any b-school profs do that. Also, when studying in a study group at a coffee shop where there are no machines you might want to have a laptop…. I am curious to see how your plan will work out, I do think it is an interesting idea.
As far as myself, I just ordered the thinkpad
May 5th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
p.s. YAY for Matreshkas!